The Pale Horseman
Ratings12
Average rating3.9
Executive Summary: Another enjoyable Historical Fiction book that I probably would have liked a bit better if I hadn't already known what was coming from watching the TV show. I'm really looking forward to book three now.
Full Review
In retrospect I wish I had read this book before watching The Last Kingdom. I had no idea that a 10 episode season would cover two books. That's partly because they glossed over half of the first book, and partly because they cut a lot of detail out.
I had been hoping that much like the first book, I'd get a lot of extra plot and detail the show left out. While that is true, it was not nearly as much as the first book had. Much of the first season seemed to heavily focus on the major events of this book rather than the one it's named for.
The writing is excellent. The battles are interesting without being dragged out too long. The politics seem believable. Unfortunately for me though, none of the plot developments were a surprise. I knew what was going to happen. It kind of felt like a reread.
I read this while traveling to/from Las Vegas last week, so instead of reading it over a long stretch of time, I did it in two long sittings. As such, I'm not really sure what else to write. It all sort of blurred together a bit.
Overall, I enjoyed it, but mostly I'm looking forward to getting past the show and reading about what comes next.
“[b:The Pale Horseman 68528 The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2) Bernard Cornwell https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1651524566l/68528.SX50.jpg 891875]”, book two in [a:Bernard Cornwell's 12542 Bernard Cornwell https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1504578807p2/12542.jpg] “Saxon Stories”, picks up right where we left Uthred in “[b:The Last Kingdom 68527 The Last Kingdom (The Saxon Stories, #1) Bernard Cornwell https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1407107780l/68527.SY75.jpg 881821]”. The Danes overrun Wessex and King Alfred has to hide in a swamp. And that's my one small gripe about this book: We get to know that swamp pretty damn well.Large parts of “Horseman” take place in the swamp and it's a bleak place.Apart from that there's everything the first book had: Action, battles, betrayal, politics!It adds new and exciting characters (Iseult!), places, intrigues and much more. At its core, “Horseman” is, fortunately, more of the same as “The Last Kingdom” and if you liked that one, it's highly likely you'll enjoy this one, too.Now, you'll have to excuse me again because right after the last page of this book, I started reading its successor and had a hard time making room for writing this!Four out of five stars!Blog Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest Medium Matrix TumblrCeterum censeo Putin esse delendam